Re: So-called Sickle Claws

In a message dated 97-08-29 04:52:07 EDT, vonrex@gte.net writes:
> There is no room for
> "give" if the claw took any impact.
There is "give" between phalanx II-2 and the ungual.
> Also, the tip of the big claw appears to be blunt. No doubt you will
> conclude that it was simply preserved that way; broken. But maybe it
> wasn't preserved because it had been dulled or broken off in life through
> usage.
Abraded all the way down to the bony core?? Sounds unlikely. Besides which,
from the drawings (_Dinosauria_, p. 274-5) it appears that *all* the claws,
hand and foot, have their tips broken off. Are you prepared to contend that
_D. antirrhopus_ was walking on all fours?
> If a ligament held the claw up that far all the time, it would be a
> ligament mightily stretched anytime the animal wanted to flex that toe
> much.
No more so than when a sauropod bent its head down to drink or when a
perching bird stands on the ground.
NP